Feb. 11, 2012

Box Score

PHILADELPHIA, Pa. -- The Xavier men's basketball team couldn't overcome a big first half deficit as the Musketeers fell at Atlantic 10 rival Temple 85-72 Saturday night at the Licouras Center. With the loss, Xavier fell to 16-9 overall and 7-4 in the Atlantic 10 while Temple improved to 19-5 and 8-2 in the A-10.

Senior Tu Holloway led Xavier with 23 points on 7-of-15 from the field and 7-of-9 from the free-throw line. Mark Lyons was second in scoring for XU with 15 and Dezmine Wells chipped in 11 points.

Temple's Ramone Moore's 30-point performance led all scorers.

XU opened the second half with four straight points but TU answered with a 7-0 run that put the score at 54-31 in favor of the Owls with 17:30 left to play.

Lyons cut the Temple lead to 13, 63-50, with a 3-pointer from the wing with 12:21 left in the game. Kenny Frease's dunk followed by a Lyons layup cut the Temple lead to 72-57 with 8:11 left to play.

Xavier pulled within 12, 77-65, with 3:48 left in the game on a pair of free throws by Lyons. Holloway cut the Temple lead to 10 with a strong layup just a minute later.

Holloway cut the TU lead to nine with a free throw at the 1:06 mark. However, that would be as close as the Musketeers would get as Temple held on for the win.

Xavier trailed 47-27 at the half with Moore leading the Owls and all scorers with 14 points on 5-of-8 from the field. Xavier was led by Holloway with 11. As a team, the Musketeers only hit 39.3 percent from the field in the first frame while TU hit 61.3 percent from the field.

Temple used a four-minute 11-0 run to build a 16-5 lead with 11:35 left in the first half. Temple added five more unanswered points before Justin Martin's put-back put the score at 21-7 with 9:12 left in the half.

Xavier returns to action Saturday, February 18 as the Musketeers host Atlantic 10 rival Dayton. Tip time is set for 8 p.m. at Cintas Center.

Xavier Musketeers Men's Basketball

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